Jackson Hole sees snowy January
Posted: Thursday, January 31, 2008 12:00 am
JACKSON (AP) - A series of storms has dumped loads of snow in the Jackson Hole area this month, keeping skiers and ski resorts happy.
As of Monday, total January snowfall at the 9,500-foot study station at the bottom of Rendezvous Bowl at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort was 128 inches, well above the 33-year average of 85 inches for the month, according to data provided by the Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center.
From Oct. 1 through Tuesday morning, the mountain resort had received 322 inches of snow on the upper mountain, more than the resort received all last winter, when 277 inches fell between Oct. 1 and closing day April 8.
"Last year, we had a big ridge of high pressure sitting over us in January," local weatherman Tom Dunham said, "and this year the floodgates just opened, one right after another. This winter is what the old-timers remember. With the wind and the snow we had on Monday, this is what it was like in the 1970s."
Since more than a foot of new snow fell by the morning of Jan. 5, the avalanche center recorded measurable snowfall in the Tetons on 16 of the next 17 days and 21 of 29 days so far this month, keeping skiers happy and Wyoming Department of Transportation workers busy.
WYDOT avalanche technician Jamie Yount said workers have logged plenty of overtime and worked 10-hour shifts during snowstorms this month to keep area highways, including State Highway 22 over Teton Pass, open.
"Last week, we were down to four trucks for a few days due to a couple of breakdowns," Yount said. "When you're working the equipment that hard, it breaks down. That's just the way it is."
Two rotary snowplows used on Teton Pass have created snowbanks more than 10 feet high in places, and Yount said rotary plows will now be needed after every storm because there's no room left along the highway to push the snow.
Yount also predicted that heavy snow sitting on a weak base layer in Snake River Canyon will eventually result in slides reaching the road there this winter.
"When we get our first big warm-up, I can pretty much guarantee that road will close," Yount said. "It's bound to happen one of these days because there's plenty of snow and there's depth hoar toward the ground."
Jackson Hole Airport director Ray Bishop said his crews have been doing a good job of keeping the runways open, and most flight delays and cancellations this month have been the result of poor weather in Denver and Salt Lake City.
In Teton Village, snow removal company Trees Inc. has been working nonstop trying to keep pace with the snowfall.
"I'd have to say this could be a record month for us," office manager Heide McBride said. "We've been moving a lot of snow, and we're stretched at times. It's the continuous snowfall that's been nonstop. As soon as we get caught up, another storm comes in."
But Al Zuckerman, who oversees parks and recreation for Teton County and Jackson, said the snowfall this month is closer to average.
"I think because we've had several years of low snowfall, this seems like a big year, but I don't think this is abnormal at all," Zuckerman said.
By the Star-Tribune staff
When Wyoming Department of Transportation crews broke through Wednesday morning to reopen Interstate 80 after 40 hours, it was equally a victory of man and machine and Mother Nature letting up for a moment, WYDOT officials said.
It's been an unusually tough winter, and the worst of it for keeping roads clear has been between Walcott and Creston junctions on either side of Rawlins, said WYDOT District 1 Maintenance Engineer Tim McGary.
It's the snow. Not the falling stuff, necessarily, but the dry�and�fallen getting scooped up by the wind and drifting.
"Our area foreman in Rawlins has worked for WYDOT for 33 years, and right now he says he has never seen this much snow just west of Rawlins," McGary said in a press release. "They've been getting pounded for two months."
In fact, the crews out of Rawlins, Baggs, Saratoga, Arlington and Elk Mountain have had at least one plow on the road nearly every day since Thanksgiving, McGary said. And some�drivers have had only one day off in that time.
Then came the storm this week.
"We had all the snow lying out in the desert and sagebrush so pretty and fluffy, but you get another�two inches on top and you get those�relentless 70�miles per hour winds, and it whites out�for miles,"�McGary said.�"The drifts form on the roads. We plow the drifts, but you do that long enough and it inevitably creates windrows. Then the wind just keeps beating you."
In anticipation of the latest storm, on Sunday arrangements were made to have help from Riverton, Lander and Thermopolis crews come down to Rawlins, WYDOT officials said.�Two trucks were brought down as well as machine operators�for�dozers, motor graders, and a snow blower and operator borrowed from Rock Springs. Help also arrived from an operator and a truck from Cheyenne and two�crew from Saratoga.
On Tuesday, two plows worked all day and night west of Rawlins where the worst problems were. They�began with�three trucks, but one broke down. Drifts were continuously�coming back over the driving lanes, so crews used�a rotary plow normally reserved for opening mountain passes to chew through the 4- or 5-foot snow piles.
All the interchanges in the area were totally blown shut beneath the bridges.
"The big�break to finally clearing this was the wind drop before dawn," McGary said. "We were finally able to get visibility to effectively get the snow pushed off the road. But we'll be battling this for quite a little while."
He plans on hiring a contractor to remove some of the snow still under the bridges and drifts on the shoulders in some areas.
"We'll try several different combinations of people and equipment to get this knocked back," he said. "In the meantime, if it starts snowing again and the wind picks up, we might find ourselves back where we were."
Weather forecasters say that's a good possibility, with more wind and snow forecast tonight and through the weekend.]]>